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Night 2: woke at 5:30 and fussed for a few minutes. I think she went back to sleep but I am not sure…she could have been awake just hanging out. Up again at 6, had her bottle and back to sleep until 7:15

Night 3 (last night): Didn’t wake up until 6:15! She had her bottle and was up for the day.

I am really hoping this sticks and she doesn’t retract back to waking up. Most people I know say it takes roughly 3 nights and that the first night is the worst. Now I can agree with everyone and say that this method DOES work!

Mikayla was cleared yesterday at the doc…no more ear infection! There was a small amount of fluid but nothing concerning. Hopefully it will stay non concerning and not rear it’s ugly head again. We can rule out her ear bothering her and know this is not the reason she is waking up. At this point, it is all a guessing game. I have no clue why she is waking up now. She was for the most part, a good sleeper. She would wake once in the night to eat until she was about 4 1/2 months. After that she was on a good schedule. Sure, there were times when we got off track a little due to the occasional illness and teething, but not for long. She would have no problem going back to her schedule. She was never a paci user after 8 weeks old and did pretty well with soothing herself to sleep.

Now we are at 8 months old and her sleeping is back to being inconsistent. 2-3 nights mornings a week she is up around 4. I usually give her ten minutes then cave and feed her back to sleep. No bueno. Now she is expecting this every morning. The hubby and I mulled it over and decided to try the Ferber method. I figured why not give it a shot and share my experience with other Mom’s out there.

Ferber Method: Night 1

Details: 4:30am she starts the crying and after about 45 minutes we are stumped and don’t know how to proceed. The doctor nurse (who we don’t like to see but our doc was out of town) said she should soothe herself back to sleep within an hour. UMMM ok…what happens if a full hour goes by? Then what!? Sure enough, 5:30 it is and I can’t take it anymore. I go in to get her and she isn’t moving, eyes are closed, and she is making little noise. Could this be!? Did she fall asleep!? YESUM! Thank God! I was so afraid all that crying was for nothing. She got herself so worked up she was hiccuping in her sleep for a few minutes but it didn’t seem to bother her.

Result: An hour of crying and she put herself back to sleep. She woke up at 6:45 and was playing in her crib and smiling.

From what I have read, Ferber method can take 3 nights of crying and by the 4th night, she should be sleeping through the night. Babycenter.com has some great tips for this if anyone is interested. We will see how tonight goes and I will blog about it tomorrow. Has anyone tried this method before? Have you had success with it? Have you tried a different method that seemed to work well?

I meant to get to this post last week but forgot! My friend, Meghan over at Ratnam Residence has nominated Bachs By The Beach for another blogger award! Thanks Meghan!

The Rules:

1. Display the award logo on your blog.

2. Link back to the blog of the person who nominated you.

3. State seven things about yourself.

4. Nominate 7 other bloggers for the award and provide links to their blogs.

First up, Seven Things:

I am a picky eater! This is very unfortunate since Charleston has some amazing seafood. I don’t like seafood (maybe salmon and calamari) and most vegetables. I try new things from time to time but just don’t like them! (sorry babe)

I hate Southern drivers. I thought NY was bad….its WAY worse here. No one can merge, pass, drive the speed limit, etc.

I originally went to college to be a teacher. I thought this was my career path and decided after one teaching class that it wasn’t for me. Although, now I am re thinking that and wished I stuck with it!

I am part Armenian. My maiden name is Apkarian and no one could ever pronounce it.

I get bored with my hair and want to change it but never do. I go back and forth wanting to cut it short and growing it long and just can’t make up my mind!

I am afraid of flying! I always get clammy and can’t seem to calm down. I get nauseous on the decent ALL THE TIME.

I love Christmas! Who doesn’t!? If I had the money, my house would full with decorations! I always feel like I could use more 🙂

Below are links to some great blogs I follow and have nominated for the award!

I have had a goal of walking during work and 3-4 days a week at home. It is difficult to stick to the walking at home schedule since the hubby’s work schedule varies every week. His trips average 1-3 nights during the week. My goal is to 1. continue walking during work, even those days that get over 100 degrees (days this hot I only walk around once) 2. Try to walk more during the week at home. This presents a challenge since the hottest time of the day seems to be right when I get home at 5:00. I can suck up the heat but I don’t want peanut to have to suffer through it. It seems the best time to walk is around 7-7:30 which is her bedtime so that doesn’t work out. Maybe early morning on the weekends will have to do until the temps cool off a bit.

My Walking Buddy! (pic taken at 6:30 this morning) **side note: it poured yesterday and the backyard where I usually throw the ball for Sadie is a swamp. Needless to say, I had to get out and walk her this morning so she could do her business and get some energy out.

2nd topic….Weight Loss

I haven’t blogged much about my weight loss goals, mainly because I was scared to commit to anything. The hubby has a current weight loss goal of 10 lbs and it makes it much easier for me to lose weight when we do it together. For the longest time I was stuck at 9 lbs! The nagging nine to lose to get back to my pre-baby weight. I am happy to report I am halfway there! I have 5 lbs to go! Now the main thing is keeping it off once I lose it! I dropped 4 lbs pretty quickly recently and I contribute it to a number of things…cutting back on carbs, eating more healthy, and pushing myself harder at the gym. My goal is to continue eating well, increase my walking, workout twice per week at the gym, and do a crossfit workout once a week with my friend.

3rd topic….Will Power

I struggle with this! I have always had a sweet tooth and have to resist eating chocolate after dinner. Unfortunately, my will power fell by the way side when I was pregnant which resulted in gaining 45 lbs! My hubby has some excellent will power and can say no to just about anything. I need to really really try hard to work on this. To help me, I have hung my designer jeans in the closet for me to see everyday. I can get these on and zipped but they are VERY tight in my legs. This will serve as inspiration to say no to the chocolate. However, I am a realistic person and can’t (and quite frankly don’t want to) cut this out completely. Every once in a while a treat isn’t a bad thing 🙂

Is there a food you just can’t resist? What is your motivation to achieving your goals (weight loss or other)?

We had an interesting sleeping non sleeping encounter with Mikayla Saturday night. Usually she is a good sleeper. Down between 7 and 7:30 and some nights she falls asleep with her bottle and goes right down, other nights she rolls around in the crib for ten minutes until she falls asleep. It really varies. She will wake between 5 and 6, take a bottle and go back to sleep for another hour. Saturday into Sunday was a completely different situation and has left me and the hubby stumped as to why.

We heard her crying at 9:30…yes, 9:30 only 2 hours after she went to bed. After a few minutes I went in and she was crying but her eyes were closed. Then she stopped and was fine. This went on for the rest of the night. Every hour she would cry, yell, grunt, etc. for a few minutes but still be asleep. This of course, woke us up every hour. We ended up sleeping in separate rooms for a few hours just to get some sleep. The guest room is next to her room so the hubby went in there first and then I followed. Every time I would start to drift off she would start with the noises! I am a very light sleeper and wake to just about anything. She has a fan in her room to drown out cars and such (we live on the corner and we have a train) and that helps me to sleep as well. Finally she was up for good around 6. I fed her and she went right back to sleep…pretty quickly and slept for 2 more hours!

She is taking antibiotics for an ear infection and is feeling much better. Maybe her ears still hurt and she kept waking up from that? Maybe her top teeth were bothering her? Was she having bad dreams all night? I just don’t know. Luckily last night was much better. We didn’t hear a peep from 7:30 to 6.

Should we nix the monitor so her noises don’t wake us? She is down the hall so I would imagine when she is really awake and hungry we would hear her. I do have this awful fear of someone breaking in her room (her window is on the first floor) and taking her and if the monitor isn’t in there, we wouldn’t hear it. I know…I am paranoid!

Has anyone else experienced this or have a guess as to why this happened?

A little bit about me: I have a Bachelor’s degree in business management and I am a financial analyst for a government contracting company. Not exactly what I thought it would be but it will do for now. I have been doing some thinking and wanted to share with y’all and get your thoughts and feedback. Ever feel like you need a “thing” or a “something” to go to when you need a little me time? Like a hobby or passion for something? I must admit that I do not have a hobby nor anything that I am good at. Ever feel like you have zero talent? Some people are naturally gifted creatively and can take amazing photographs or build things from scratch. My hubby is very talented with woodwork and has his own space in the garage. He builds stuff all the time and it looks great. I wish I had a creative bone to create something of my own. I always see ideas for crafts or housing projects that someone created and wish I could come up with something similar!

I guess a start would be to write out a list of things I would enjoy doing and try to make something out of that list. Some friends of mine have something they do on the side that they love, such as flipping houses, selling jewelry, making crafts, sewing, etc. I need to get thinking and try to come up with something! Some people might say blogging is a hobby but I am not as avid of a blogger as a lot of people out there.

Here is my list of things I like and things I could be interested in (very random):

Jewelry/shoes – what girl doesn’t like this!?

Makeup – tried selling Mary Kay once and it was NOT for me.

Photography with nature scenes – really need a new camera.

House decorating – if I had an unlimited amount of money, my house would look like something out of a magazine. For now, I do a little at a time.

Animals – I volunteered at an animal shelter after college and loved it.

Gardening – I love flowers! Problem is….I don’t exactly have a “green thumb” hence why I hired a landscaper to do the work.

Baking – I have one of these bad boys and its awesome! I have only used it a few times. I am afraid to experiment with new recipes because I have no will power and will eat everything I bake!

The Beach – not sure what could come of this one…lol.

The biggest obstacle is trying find the time! I work full-time and then come home to a 7 month old. So this would be something I could do after she goes to bed and/or on the weekends. It’s hard to do much during the week since the hubby travels and his schedule varies each week.

There you have it! Any suggestions or ides for me? Do you have a hobby or something you enjoy doing and are good at? I would love to hear your thoughts!

Hi blog friends…long time no posting. I have a bit of writers block and need to find the motivation to start blogging again. I am contemplating deleting my blog all together but haven’t made the final decision just yet. I am going away for the weekend and will think about what I want to do. In the mean time, if you would like Bach’s by the Beach to continue…I would love to know! Sometimes I feel (as I’m sure many bloggers also feel) as if no one reads my blogs or enjoys reading my blogs. So if you chime in with your thoughts, I would greatly appreciate it!

Rob’s job requires quite a bit of travel. According to his job description, 50% to be exact. Usually this means he travels every week for 1-2 nights at a time, sometimes 3 nights is required depending on where he is going. I feel spoiled when he gets a week off but try not to get used to it since the busy summer season is quickly approaching. When we talked about starting a family I knew that having a baby and a dog to take care of by myself when he traveled would be hard. Of course, I didn’t have a full understanding of what “hard” meant until I was put in the situation. Of course in the beginning when she was younger it was much more difficult. He started traveling again when she was around 7 weeks old. It has gotten easier but is still a challenge as I really don’t have time to make dinner for myself or just relax. Here is a peak into our typical day and night when Rob travels:

4:30 – 5:30 – M usually wakes up during this time for a bottle and then goes back to sleep

5:30 – Alarm goes off, hit the snooze button at least three times (I shower at night to save 20 minutes in the AM)

5:50 – 6:30 – Get up and get ready for the day, feed Sadie, throw the ball around in the backyard for Sadie. Getting a fence was the best idea!

6:30 – 6:45 – Wake M and get her dressed (her sleep times vary right now, if she has a night where she gets up at 2ish, I will feed her around this time)

7:00 – 7:15 – Load up the car and head to daycare

7:30/ 8:00 – 4:00 /4:30 – At work

4:15 – 4:45 – Pick up M at daycare

5:00 – 6:00 – Feed M if she is due for a feeding, walk Sadie or throw the ball in the backyard, feed Sadie, wash bottles, do laundry (if needed), M takes a 30 minute power nap

6:00 – 7:00 – Eat dinner (usually something quick like a lean cuisine), feed M oatmeal and a veggie, give M a bath and get ready for bed, tummy time

7:00 – 7:30 – Feed M her final bottle for the night and put her down for bed

7:30 – 8:30 – Prepare bottles for the following day, take a shower

8:30 – 9:00 – Throw the ball for Sadie one last time, talk to hubby, read and go to bed!

There you have it! That is a typical day for the Bach family! I must say if it is raining it really sucks to play with Sadie outside!

What is your routine like? Do you ever find yourself completely off some days and find it hard to get back to your routine?